Born Again
by Stelena-Beautiful
Summary: Stefan finds his new, epic love in a very unexpected place... Takes place directly following the events of 4x23. Stefan/OC.


**Born Again**

_**Summary:**_** Lexie said that he would find epic love again. He just never really believed it … until now. In the meantime, Silas is wreaking havoc in Mystic Falls with Stefan's face.**

_**Author's Note: **_**This takes place directly following the events of 4x23 ("Graduation") There is no Amara because I imagined Silas's great love very differently. When he was with her, she was called Dama and now she's calling herself something else. Anyway, please read on to find out what happens next.**

**P.S. I am not a Delena fan (at all!) so I can't promise they will be together for very long in this. Sorry, sort of! lol**

* * *

**Preface**

The water had nearly filled the interior of the coffin. The feeling of claustrophobia was all-consuming as he clawed helplessly at the ceiling of the casket. It wouldn't give. He was weakened from fighting, from struggling, from the wound Silas had left in his gut. The need to give in, to accept his fate, was rich. Inertia began to grip every bone in his body. He knew that he couldn't die but the thought of spending eternity at the bottom of the ocean, alone, more so than ever, made him try again to fight it. He kicked out. He pounded on the roof of the box as it submerged still deeper. Water filled his nostrils and it was painful but the thought that he would never see Elena again, or dammit, even Damon, made him fight. Fight hard. He struggled. He flailed his fists. He ratcheted his legs up, slamming his feet as hard as he could into the roof of the box. His living tomb. That's how he thought of it.

It wouldn't open.

He gagged as the water completely surrounded him. He fought, he struggled, he tossed and turned and then he felt the careening of the box slow and eventually come to a stop at an awkward angle. He had hit the bottom of the quarry. He was miles and miles down where no one would ever find him.

Desperation set in as he struggled still more. It was all for naught.

Knowledge brought shameless tears. Tears that mingled with the water and burned his eyes. He knew the truth now.

_He was never getting out of here._

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_Silas knew that the cure was gone._ He felt the loss of it in every bone of his body. He was utterly shattered, grief sitting like a fierce weight on his unbeating heart. He nearly came to his knees, knowing that he was trapped here on earth forever.

He was going to make all of them pay. He was going to bring justice home to every last person – vampire or otherwise - that had ever betrayed him. Revenge would have to wait though. He knew he had only one option left.

He was going to have to try to revive his beloved from the grave. If he couldn't join her in death, then he had to bring her back here somehow. He had waited for eons of time to be with her again, to look into her eyes and kiss her lips and hold her close. Today would be the day that she would finally return to him.

All he needed now was to find was a blood sacrifice. That should not be too difficult, not too difficult at all. He was in the woods. By now he knew that many young people came here to smoke and do any number of debaucheries activities. All he needed was a young woman. Once he had her, he only need say an incantation and then his beloved would return to his arms. _Forever._

XoXoXo

At some point, he must have given into his exhaustion because when he wasn't aware of a thing until a soft, alluring light began to dance before his consciousness. He was sure he was dreaming and for a moment, he was afraid to open his eyes; afraid that it would all be gone. He still had to be sunken at the bottom of the quarry, never to be found. He was fairly certain that the despairing for his hopeless situation had made him fall asleep and dream. There was no other explanation for the warmth he was feeling.

And yet...

He felt a presence close by. A comforting one. This felt all too real. A soft voice beckoned to him to "wake up". It was a hushed, feminine voice and in his delirium, he believed with all his unbeating heart that it belonged to Elena. It had to. There could be no other that would make him feel this at peace.

He allowed his eyes to slowly flutter open. If this gentle presence was indeed Elena, he had to see her, if only one more time. His vision was blurred, even as a soft, encompassing light seared his vision. He realized he was on a bed. No, it was a sofa. He turned his head to the left then and saw a shadowy, feminine form hovering across the room, turned to face the fire dancing in the hearth.

"Elena," he gasped out. "Elena!" Hope was in his voice as the figure turned. He felt something inside of him break as he realized it was not Elena. Not at all.

He tried vaulting off the sofa but the young woman was approaching him, holding out a hand. "Slow down, Tiger." She came towards him slowly, almost as if she dared not trust him. Hell, he felt the same way. He wasn't sure if he could trust her either.

He felt the still-dampness of his clothing though and knew that somehow this girl had been responsible for his rescue.

His vision cleared still more and he could see that she looked nothing like Elena after all. Her hair was a coppery-red, her eyes bright green, seeming to see all. Elena was trim and delicately built, but this girl was softer in her looks and far curvier. She was no Elena. _Though no one could ever be,_ he thought.

Slowly this time, he pulled himself up on the sofa. It was a rag-tag, brown color but not entirely uncomfortable. If he was allowed the luxury of time, he might have wanted a nap. Instead he asked her, "Where are we?"

"In a little cabin at the edge of the woods," she replied. Her voice was huskier than Elena's, throatier somehow and yet distinctly all woman.

"Are we near Mystic Falls?"

"Yes, just outside the town limits."

He watched her drop down into an overly padded, ratty green arm chair and studied him with those intuitive emerald eyes of hers. "You have questions," she said.

"Of course I do."

"I may have answers."

"How did you get me out of that locked box? How did you even know I was down there at all?"

"I could lie to you and say that I happened to be walking in the woods at the time and heard a loud splash! _But_ I won't."

"Then you either had help to get me out of that water or you have some kind of supernatural strength."

"I couldn't have done that without some type of power." She continued on. "I said a spell that conjured you right up onto the embankment and then I dragged you the rest of the way here."

"You're a witch."

"Hmm… Something like that."

"Did you really see me pushed off the edge of the cliff though?"

She shook her head. "No, not exactly. It came to me in my mind's eye."

"You have the gift."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a gift… More like a curse."

"A curse like mine?"

"I'm not a vampire like you, Stefan. But having these powers is no picnic either."

"You know my name…"

She nodded again. "Of course. I'm psychic." She splayed her small, dainty white hands. "I saw you go over the cliff, in my mind's eye, and I came to help."

"Why?" he asked rather bluntly.

"Well I like to think I'm not an unfeeling monster who would let someone suffer that fate."

Stefan nodded though he wasn't sure he believed her. Not even close. He changed the subject for the moment. "What's your name?"

"Why –"

"You know mine. It's only fair I should know yours too."

She nodded and a tendril of her wavy red hair fell free from behind her ear, for a moment hiding her pale face, making her appear that much more mysterious. "It's Ophelia. My friends – if I were to have some out here – would call me Lia."

"Lia then," Stefan said and her eyes widened in surprise. "I'll call you a friend until you prove yourself to be otherwise. You saved me after all. Now I have to save Elena and my brother and friends from a worse fate. I have to stop Silas."

He watched her eyes go wider and become stormy, full of the light of recognition.

"You know of Silas."

She shrugged. "Something like that."

"We've come this far, Lia. You might as well tell me what you really know."

"I don't think I can."

"You _have_ to. Lives may depend on your answer …How do you know Silas?"

"Doesn't everyone know of him by now?" She laughed humorlessly, the sound hollow and miserable. "But honestly, I have spent maybe a whole eternity nearly trying to free myself from him."

It was Stefan's turn to be surprised. "You loved him."

"Yes, once. Maybe I still do in some twisted, unnatural way." The firelight danced on her pale skin. Her face appeared almost ethereal, especially as her plump lips twisted into a mocking smile. "I loved Silas and he loved me ... to death."

The picture was becoming clearer to Stefan now. "You're her. You're the one Qetsiyah murdered."

Lia said nothing. Her answer was clear.

"How can you still be here? You said you're not a vampire and I can tell that's true just by your scent so… what are you?"

"I am reincarnated. More or less. I have died at least a thousand times but every time I return, I return looking different but with my knowledge of my past lives in tact. This latest incarnation of me came with the gift, as you put it, and a purpose."

Stefan was having a hard time wrapping his mind around all of this but somehow he believed Lia. He had no choice but to do so.

"What's your purpose?"

"To protect you."

Stefan swallowed hard. "You can't be serious."

"I am. Deadly so."

"You can protect me from Silas?"

"That's my job description anyway."

"How long have you known about me?"

"For years and years. It still is a bit jarring to see you up close and personal though. You are a carbon copy of him. It scares me a little – or a lot."

"I want to believe we're different in every way but looks."

"Maybe." She paused before continuing. "But I know of your history with Elena. Your obsession with her."

"I'm not-"

"Love is obsession in its purest form."

"I never would purposefully let any harm come to her."

"Maybe not, but still love is as deadly as a scorpion poised to strike."

Stefan could not deny at least some of the truth of her words. Maybe he was no better than Silas with his deep concern for all things Elena Gilbert. Lexie had told him the last time they saw each other that he needed to let Elena go but it seemed an impossible task. His body and his soul still ached for her.

A long silence fell between them before Stefan saw fit to break it. "Thank you for protecting me thus far, Lia, but I need to go."

"You can't."

"Why not?"

"Its dawn," she said, pointing to the slice of space between her cheap, ugly curtains where sure enough, a small ray of light was filtering through.

"I have my –" He broke off as he looked at his hand and saw that it was ring-free. He lapis lazuli was gone. He turned to stare at her questioningly, maybe a little accusingly.

"You can't think that I took it."

"Did you?"

"What good would that do me?" She asked, a hint of irritation in her voice. "No, I expect its buried at the bottom of the river somewhere."

"I hate to ask but can you please do a spell to bring it forward? I really need it."

She shrugged. "Alright."

"Good. Then I can return to Mystic Falls and defeat Silas."

She laughed bitterly. "No one can do that."

"I have to try."

"Well you're determined … But you can't do it alone."

"Maybe_ you_ can help me. You are possibly the only one who can stop him."

"I never could stop him. And I spent the last two thousand years running from him."

"Maybe it's time to stop running, to stop being scared. We can defeat him."

"I don't think that's possible, Stefan. Only in fairytales do the so-called 'good' triumph over that kind of insidious evil."

"Are there really any other options but to try? Either you help me or I do this alone," Stefan said.

"What are you hoping to accomplish? If you think saving Elena somehow will make her want to return to you-"

Stefan's back stiffened and he turned away. "I don't need a psychic to tell me that she won't come back to me. She's with Damon now. She loves him in a way that she never did me. It cuts me deeper than any sword could but I'll settle for having her alive and with him, than dead altogether… Now will you help me?"

"It seems that I am fated to do so. I am your protector. You will die for sure this time if you go up against Silas again by yourself."

"Who appointed you my 'protector'? Really?"

"I am not sure. It's just my destiny, I guess."

XoXoXo

He found a girl easily enough. The scent of her young, pulsating, sweet blood carried on the air. He found her lying in a sleeping bag beside a fire that was turning into nothing but dying embers. Her auburn hair was fanned out all around a denim jacket that she was using as a pillow. She was a runaway, he figured. No one would miss her. Not that it mattered. She was dying for a greater purpose.

His boots crunching on the sticks and leaves on the forest floor brought her to wakefulness. She looked up at him, immediate fear in her eyes. As if she knew; as if she knew exactly what was coming for her.

_Death._

He grabbed her as she vaulted to her feet. She was slim and quick, but he was quicker. He also had a single-minded purpose that he could not be distracted from.

She screamed loudly as she struggled in his punishing embrace. He ran his fingers through the tangled waves of her hair. "Sweet, sweet girl, its time. The end is here for you. Thank you so much for your blood gift."

As she squirmed in his arms, he drew back her hair and sunk his teeth deep into her neck, quickly draining nearly all of her sticky, sweet blood. He couldn't completely kill her – not yet – but he had desperately needed sustinance and a way to immobilize her. She stopped writhing and instead sagged in his arms, no longer fighting her fate.

"To this end were you born," he murmured. He let her slide to the ground onto her sleeping bag. She lay there prostrate, unmoving, as he began gathering everything he would need for the ritual. He had the necessary herbs in his pocket and the rest he could gather right there in the woods.

In no time, he had constructed an altar from leaves, berries and branches. He lifted the young woman into his arms and she stared up at him with unseeing eyes. He placed her upon the altar and she didn't struggle. She was past the point of no return. He took the thorn of a fragrant rose and pressed it into her palm as hard as he could, scraping it across the soft white skin. Blood rose to the surface of her palm and he began to chant in his natural tongue.

"_Oh great and terrifying spirits, gather thy strength, gather thy courage and vigor. I command thee to rise up from the abyss. Unite as one with a single purpose. Return my love to me from the grave. Return Dama. The one and the only Dama. The woman who was so cruelly torn from my arms. Spirits, give up your dead!"_

He chanted this single phrase over and over as from the pocket of his jacket; he withdrew an enchanted dagger that was never far from him. With hands gripping it tightly, he plunged the dagger deep into the abdomen of the young woman. She whimpered once and then her eyes rolled back in her head.

Silas waited.

XoXoXo

Stefan watched her under his lashes as she sat across the low table from him, the light from the fire dancing in her green eyes. He gripped her hands tightly as she said a spell to bring his ring back to him.

He felt the power all around him until suddenly, her grasp on his fingers broke and her pale face contorted in pain. She fell back onto the floor, grasping her belly and groaning in pain, bucking on the rug as some invisible force invoked screams of agony from deep within her.

He vaulted to his feet and was beside her in less than a second. He gripped her by either of her shapely arms, trying to stop the spasms wracking her body.

"What's going on?" Stefan shouted. "What's happening?" He couldn't lose her, not now. She was his only key to defeating the darkness once and for all.

_"Lia!"_ He cried. He reached out and grasped her trembling chin in his left hand, forcefully turning her lolling head towards him. He got low in her face and held her tightly. "Whatever's happening, Lia, fight it. _Fight it!" _he commanded her.

Bloody tears rolled down her face. He was horrified and yet hypnotized by the sight and smell. He screamed at her again. "Lia! Fight this, fight it. You're the only hope we have!"

"Silas," she moaned as the writhing slowed a bit. She whimpered. "He wants me back. Oh, he wants me back now!"


End file.
